Malabar District

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Malabar District was an administrative district of British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad (excluding the Chittur Taluk), and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District (former part of Ponnani Taluk) in the northern part of Kerala state. The district lay between the Arabian Sea on the west, South Kanara District on the north, the Western Ghats to the east, and the princely state of Cochin to the south. The district covered an area of 15,009 km² (5795 square miles), and extended 233 km (145 miles) along the coast and 40-120 kilometres (25-75 miles) inland.

Most of Malabar District was included among the territories ceded to the British East India Company in 1792 by Tipu Sultan of Mysore at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Mysore War; Wayanad was ceded in 1799 at the conclusion of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The region was organized into a district of Madras Presidency. The administrative headquarters were at Calicut (Kozhikode). After Indian independence, Madras Presidency was reorganized into Madras state, which was divided along linguistic lines on November 1, 1956, when Malabar District was merged with the Malayalam-speaking Kasaragod District immediately to the north and the state of Travancore-Cochin to the south to form the state of Kerala. Malabar District was divided into the three districts of Kozhikode, Palakkad, and Kannur on January 1, 1957. Malappuram District was created from parts of Kozhikode and Palakkad in 1969, and Wayanad District was created in 1980 from parts of Kozikode and Kannur.

The name Malabar was not in general use until the arrival of the Europeans. The word is most probably the fusion of the Dravidian word Mala (hill) and the Arabic word barr (continent). Malabar may so be taken to mean the hill country, a name well suited to its physical characteristics.

[edit] Geography

The district was widely scattered and consists of the following parts:-

  • Malabar Proper extending north to south along the coast, a distance of around 240 kilometre, and lying between N. Lat 10° 15ˈ and 12° 18ˈ N and E.Long. 75° 14ˈ and 76° 56ˈ.
  • A group of nineteen isolated bits of territory lying scattered, fifteen of them in the native state of Cochin and the remaining four in those of Travancore, but all of them near the coast line. These isolated bits of territory form the taluk of British Cochin.
  • Two other detached bits of land within the Travencore.
  • Four inhabited and ten uninhabited islands of Lakshadweep. The four inhabited islands are: Agatti, Kavaratti, Androth, and Kalpeni.
  • The solitary island of Minicoy.

[edit] References

  • Malabar Manual in two volumes by William Logan, first published in 1887, reprinted by Asian Educational Services in 1951.